Emerging global value fund ventures into Iraq

Last year, Kevin Martelli founded Martek Partners, which is the Switzerland, Lausanne-based investment advisory company for a value investment fund called A4 Investments - Martek Partners, which invests globally in public equities and other securities using a long term value approach.

The €10m fund was launched in April 2013 in a relatively challenging environment, because assets are very highly priced and it was difficult to find assets that provided the right margin of safety, Martelli said during the latest Opalesque Geneva Roundtable. For that reason, it has remained more than 70% in cash, so the performance in 2013 was 0%.

The fund manager follows a long-term value approach, and invests in any type of assets, including equities, bonds and derivatives, with absolutely no geographical restrictions.

"We invest globally, that means we consider literally all countries, including emerging as well as frontier markets," Martelli explains. "For example, personally I think one of the best opportunities available today is the Iraqi market, which happens to be one of the cheapest and highest growth markets with very low levels of debt, unlike developed countries. It is not easy to access this market, ......................